


Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did

by smilebackwards



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-25
Updated: 2009-02-25
Packaged: 2017-11-04 02:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/388833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilebackwards/pseuds/smilebackwards
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Oh my God,</i> Dave thinks, <i>my brother fights space aliens</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did

**Author's Note:**

> Written for prompt [64.03](http://community.livejournal.com/sg1_five_things/158005.html) at [](http://sg1-five-things.livejournal.com/profile)[**sg1_five_things**](http://sg1-five-things.livejournal.com/)

Four ways Dave Sheppard didn’t find out about the Stargate Program:

i.

Dave hates the bitterness between them. He hates that they never took the chance to heal old wounds, that Dad’s dead and now they’ll never have that chance.

No matter what he said, Dave knows that John isn’t here for money. He wishes he hadn’t made the accusation, because it’s just one more hurt on top of everything else and because of the look in John’s eyes, but the sting of John leaving the wake halfway through was too much. He doesn’t really expect John to come back, and certainly not to look so entirely beat up and destroyed.

“What the hell happened?” Dave asks when John winces, sitting down on the sofa. He remembers how his brother broke his arm when he was seven and never shed a tear, didn’t even tell anyone until three hours later when their mother had asked why he was cradling it.

“Work,” John says succinctly.

It kills Dave, not knowing what John does or even where he’s stationed, not knowing whether John won’t tell him because it’s classified or because he doesn’t think he’d care.

“Work!” Dave yells. “What do you do that requires you to leave your father’s funeral and come back looking like you’re halfway to the grave yourself?”

“I got you security clearance,” John says, looking up at him with bruised eyes. “Do you really want to know?”

Dave nods, and John tells him.

 

ii.

Ever since John announced that he was joining the Air Force, Dave has been terrified by the image of an officer in crisp dress blues, unsmiling and holding a letter, showing up at his door.

It’s almost twenty years past John’s declaration when it actually happens.

The only real differences from Dave’s early vision are that there are two officers instead of one and that they have a video tape in place of a letter. Not only are they unsmiling and sober, the younger man –a major Dave reads from his insignia– looks totally wrecked.

They introduce themselves as General Jack O’Neill and Major Evan Lorne and they say the words Dave has dreaded for twenty years, “Your brother was killed in action. I’m sorry for your loss.” They say other words about John, how he died heroically, saving other people, the way he would have wanted. They say that he was a good man, that he had many friends. Dave wonders if he was happy.

“Colonel Sheppard left this for you,” Major Lorne says, holding out the video tape. Dave takes it with numb hands and watches the men leave.

When he puts in the tape, he is greeted with John’s smiling face on the television screen, at once familiar and half forgotten. “Hi Dave,” John says laconically, and the smile drops from his face for a moment. “If you’re watching this, then I’m sorry for what that must mean about me, but there are some things I want you to know.” John’s smile comes back full-force and he looks so much like their mother and so much like himself that Dave has to cry. “I want you to know that I was happy here,” John continues. “I want to tell you about something amazing called the Stargate Program.”

 

iii.

Everything is on fire. Washington and London and Tokyo and Moscow. Newscasters are talking about something called the Ori and Dave doesn’t understand how this could have happened and he doesn’t know what to do, who to call, if there even is anyone. Shirley left and Dad’s dead and he hasn’t heard from John since the funeral.

He hears a car pull up in the drive and runs outside, a sudden wild hope in his chest. A man in a military uniform gets out of the black car. It’s not John.

“Are you Dave Sheppard?” the man asks. Dave nods. “I’m Sergeant Bates. If you come with me, I’ll take you to your brother.” Dave figures he doesn’t really have anything to lose.

An hour later, he’s standing with a small group of people in front of a round circle of blue light called the Stargate and someone is saying how they are on a list of evacuees and if they’ll just step through the wormhole, they’ll be with their loved ones. There is a couple beside him with a young daughter, crying in her mother’s arms. “Shh, Madison, it’s okay,” he hears the mother say. “We’re going to see Uncle Mer.”

Dave steps through the Stargate and comes out somewhere entirely different, with stained glass windows, people and soldiers everywhere. “Dave!” someone shouts. The crowd parts, and suddenly John is in front of him, hugging him like they’re still children, or like it’s the end of the world. “Dave,” John says again, close to his ear, and Dave hugs back tight.

 

iv.

John calls randomly one night in early October and says, “Hey Dave, um, watch the news tomorrow, okay?” He hangs up before Dave can ask why.

Dave wakes up at 5 am and turns on the TV, but it’s just weather forecast and entertainment recap. At work, he keeps half an eye on the set in the lounge, waiting, and almost has a heart attack when he hears the word _explosion_. It turns out to just be a filler story about a gas leak.

Finally, the 6 o’clock news has an icon in all caps that reads: BREAKING STORY. The President gives a short, strange speech that only makes sense in context when generals in dress blues start talking about something called the Stargate Program.

They run pictures and video clips that are both horrifying and amazing and then Dave sees John up on a podium with the American flag behind him. “Hey, everyone,” John addresses the huge group of screaming reporters surrounding him, laid-back and cheerful, without the smug superiority of many of the earlier military leaders. Dave knows that John is talking to him. “I’m Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, and I’m the military CO of the best part of the Stargate Program. Atlantis.”

 

 

And one way he did:

i.

There is a loud pounding on Dave’s front door at 3 o’clock in the morning and when he pulls open the door to yell at whatever idiot doesn’t understand the meaning of _3 o’clock in the morning_ there is a short man with thinning hair and a gun strapped to his leg. “You’re Dave Sheppard, right?” he says, pulling Dave out of the doorway without waiting for an answer.

There is a helicopter on the front lawn.

Dave stares and the man shouts, “Hurry up!” and pushes him inside. “Okay, okay,” the man says, while Dave continues to stare, shell-shocked. “Okay,” the man says again, finally calming slightly. “I’m Dr. Rodney McKay and I’m sorry about this, but your idiot brother was injured pulling another one of his heroic, self-sacrificing stunts and the doctor said to get the next of kin.”

Dave feels his heart stutter and suddenly doesn’t care about any of the weird shit that’s just happened as long as it’s getting him to John. “How?” he croaks.

Rodney talks and talks and talks all the way through four military checkpoints and down into a huge underground complex. Dave doesn’t really get the parts about wormhole physics and hive ships, but he does get the other galaxies and aliens.

 _Oh my God,_ Dave thinks, _my brother fights space aliens_ and then he just thinks _Oh my God,_ because there is John in a hospital bed, pale and bandaged, with nurses and doctors flitting around in every direction screaming things like, “Charge to 150” and “We’re losing him!”

John wakes up two days later and Rodney tells him, “Beckett was on M4X-333 so we had to evacuate you to the SGC for treatment. Also, your brother is here,” and leaves.

“Dave?” John says weakly, and he sounds like his little brother again, who wouldn’t ask for help, but sometimes needed it.

“I’m here,” Dave answers, taking his hand. “So, this is what you do, huh?”

John smiles. “Yeah, this is what I do.”

 


End file.
